Category: justice

During a day with a heat index of 118 degrees F., the main water supply to my home was cut off for eight hours due to road construction. I moaned and groaned about it. I had to make lots of ice in the preceding days, store as much cool water as I could in the refrigerator, and lug up a large plastic container of water I had stored in the basement for years “in case of emergency.” Such were my trails and tribulations.

That morning, I woke up to a story on the radio about the drought and famine in Somalia. The story spoke of a woman who, everyday, walked miles to a dry river bed, dug and dug until she found some water for her family, and then lugged the distasteful water back home in order to survive. I gasped at my spoiled privilege that had me complaining about losing water from my faucets for only eight hours.

A newly arrived Somali refugee boy tries to drink from a cup as he waits in line with his mother at a refugee reception center at Hagadera camp, one of three refugee camps that make up sprawling Dadaab refugee complex in Dadaab town, northeastern Kenya, on Sept. 5. (Dai Kurokawa / EPA) Click here.And here for today’s suffering.